ATLANTA — Federal investigations are open for possible discrimination incidents at both the Cobb County School District and Atlanta Public Schools, a federal database of such investigations shows.
The investigation into the Cobb County School District is the newer of the two, opened on Dec. 5, according to the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights database. The APS investigation was opened in July.
The federal database does not provide any details on why an investigation is opened, but a Cobb County school district said in a statement that it was tied to a complaint about a reported anti-Muslim incident.
"We are aware of a single complaint, at a single school, about a reported anti-Muslim incident. All students in Cobb should feel safe and welcomed, we do not tolerate hate of any kind," the statement said.
Azka Mahmood of CAIR Georgia says these types of cases are spiking in the state.
“If I can give you a staggering number just in Georgia in October and November of 2023, month by month from last year, we’ve seen a 1200% increase in anti-Muslim incidents," said Mahmood.
APS, in its own statement, said:
Atlanta Public Schools is cooperating fully with the U.S. Department of Education on this matter, which is unrelated to the Israel-Hamas War. APS is an official No Place for Hate district. We take great pride in this fact and will continue to foster safe and inclusive environments for our students and employees in all our schools.
However, leaders at the Anti-Defamation League say families who report these incidents to their organization don't feel safe at all.
“The conflict and what we’ve seen on social media has bled into the school space. Specifically into the K through 12 space," said Eytan Davidson of the Anti-Defamation League.
Complaints to the Office of Civil Rights are not entirely uncommon for school districts - a database of resolved cases shows that virtually every major metro Atlanta district has had to resolve at least one over the past decade or so. Many of those involve disability discrimination complaints - both APS and Cobb County resolved such a complaint last year. It is less common for there to be an investigation over race, color or national origin discrimination, as is the case in the two open investigations this year for APS and Cobb County.
The disability discrimination complaint in Cobb County last year concerned a North Cobb High School student who alleged the district had failed to implement an educational plan to accommodate his needs with ADHD, known as a 504 Plan, leading to a behavioral incident for which he was disciplined.
In the APS incident, the parent of a student at Springdale Park Elementary School said her fourth-grade student with autism who had accommodations laid out in a similar plan meant to accommodate his needs, known as an Individualized Education Program, was put on a bus without those accommodations on one day, leading to an altercation with another student.